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Reading passage Grade 2 Science

Two Pipes Under Beckwith Street: Where the Rain Goes

A grade 2 read-aloud passage in which a city worker shows a class why street rain reaches the creek uncleaned while sink water goes to a plant first.

Objectives

  1. Students will tell where street water goes and where sink water goes.
  2. Students will name what rain carries into a storm drain.
  3. Students will explain why litter dropped on a street can reach a creek.

Vocabulary

Storm drain
A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.

Also: grate, pipe, creek, litter, plant

Teacher overview

This passage puts a class on a street corner in the fictional town of Beckwith with a city worker who explains that two separate pipe systems run below their feet. It is written for reading aloud, with short sentences and a single new idea in each paragraph. Second graders commonly assume that every drain leads to the same cleaning plant, which is why the worker in the passage says plainly that nobody cleans the water from the storm drain before it reaches the creek. A grate photograph or a walk to a real storm drain before the reading makes the two paths easier to hold apart.

Two Pipes Under Beckwith Street: Where the Rain Goes — Grade 2 Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Room 4 walked to the corner of Beckwith Street. A city worker met them there. Her name was Dev. She pointed down at the curb.

Dev told the class that two pipe systems run under the street. The two pipes do not mix.

The first pipe starts at the storm drain. The class looked down through the metal grate. They saw wet stone and a dark hole. Rain that falls on the street runs into that drain. It goes down the pipe. It comes out at Fernquist Creek. Nobody cleans it first.

The second pipe starts at the school. Water from the sinks goes into it. So does water from the toilets. That pipe carries the water across town to a plant. Workers clean the water at the plant. Only then does the water go back to the creek.

Dev held up a paper cup. She asked the class where the cup would end up if she dropped it in the street.

The class thought about the two pipes. Then they gave their answer: the creek.

Dev said yes. Rain carries dirt, oil, leaves, and litter into the storm drain. After a big storm last April, Fernquist Creek ran brown for two days.

Then Dev talked about winter. Snow falls on this street too. It sits there as ice. Ice is solid water. When the sun warms it, the ice melts. The melted water runs into the same drain.

On the walk back, the class saw a candy wrapper near the school drain. Nadia picked it up. She put it in the trash can by the door.

Questions

  1. How many pipe systems run under Beckwith Street?
  2. Where does the water from the storm drain come out?
  3. Where does the water from the school sinks go first?
  4. Which kind of water gets cleaned before it reaches the creek?
  5. Why did the class say the dropped cup would end up in the creek?
  6. What does the passage say the rain carries into the storm drain?
  7. In winter the street water sits as ice before it melts. Is ice solid or liquid?
  8. Name one thing a person could do so that less litter reaches the creek.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Two. The passage says two pipe systems run under the street and that they do not mix.
  2. Answer: At Fernquist Creek. The passage says the storm drain pipe carries street water there without anyone cleaning it.
  3. Answer: To a plant across town. The passage says the second pipe carries sink and toilet water to a plant where workers clean it.
  4. Answer: The water from the sinks and toilets. Only that pipe leads to the plant, while the storm drain water reaches the creek uncleaned.
  5. Answer: Accept any answer saying that a cup in the street would be washed into the storm drain by the rain, and that the drain leads straight to the creek.
  6. Answer: Dirt, oil, leaves, and litter. The passage lists these four right before it describes the brown creek water.
  7. Answer: Solid. The passage says the ice on the street is solid water and that it melts into liquid water when the sun warms it.
  8. Answer: Accept any workable action, such as picking up litter near a drain, using a trash can, or keeping the storm drain clear, as Nadia does at the end of the passage.

Differentiation

Support

Read the passage aloud twice and stop after each of the first two pipe paragraphs to sketch that pipe on the board. Give these students a two-column sheet headed street water and sink water, and have them sort picture cards into the columns before answering questions 2 and 3.

Extension

Ask students to write two sentences telling a younger class why a storm drain is not a trash can, using one detail from the passage in each sentence. Answers that name the creek or the missing cleaning step are on target.

ELL supports

Preview "grate," "drain," "pipe," and "litter" with a photograph of a curbside storm drain before reading. Provide the sentence frames "Street water goes to ___" and "Sink water goes to ___," and allow questions 2 and 3 to be answered by pointing at the matching sketch on the board.

Extensions

Walk the class to the nearest storm drain on school grounds and list what is lying within one step of it. Ask students to predict which of those things would reach the creek in the next heavy rain and which would stay put.